Global Ganja Report

Operation TELOS, an effort by Spain's Guardia Civil to halt the flow of Moroccan hashish into the Iberian peninsula, is now in its thrid year—but ongoing busts only testify to the ingenuity and resources of the smugglers. On Jan. 13, the Guardia announced that they'd broken up a ring that brought the stuff into Spain's southern province of Cadiz using a fleet of pleasure boats with false bottoms, arresting 17 people and seizing five of the boats along with 4.5 ton of hash. The arrests were made in a series of raids over the past months. The nationality of those arrested was not specified. 

The following day, the Guardia announced that it had intercepted a light helicopter over Cadiz, which was tracked because it was flying in from Morocco at night, without lights, and at an unusually low altitude. It was seized when it landed in a remote area of Los Alcornocales Natural Park, and found to contain 615 kilos of hashish. The Ukrainian pilot was detained, along with his waiting ground crew. A subsequent investigation lead to raids on several properties around southern Spain, with another 17 arrested—and another helicopter seized.

Spanish police seized around 100 tons of hashish last year, about three percent less than in the previous year. (EuroWeekly, Jan. 15; The Local, Jan. 13)

Graphic: Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection

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